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Late Preterm Advice Needed

My munchkin was born at 36 and 4 with RDS, nuchal cord, elevated bilirubin to warrant phototherapy, and suspected abdominal sepsis that was treated upon arrival.

Needless to say we had a very stressful first few days of life and I bless our lucky stars that we only needed to spend five days in NICU. My munchkin is one heck of a trooper!

However this all means we missed out on those first crucial hours of bonding and beginning breastfeeding. Between that and the nurses in the NICU telling me I was spending too much time trying to get him to breastfeed, I'm extremely discouraged.

Right now I'm pumping enough to feed an army, at least 3oz from just one side every 3-4 hours, sometimes more. So we don't have a need for formula. But I wish I could get him to take it directly from the breast. We've had a few successful attempts. They don't last long because he gets so tired, 7 minutes at best.

I guess I'm just trying to see what anyone else thinks I can do to encourage him more. I think maybe I just really need to know I'm not the only one out there experiencing this.

Re: Late Preterm Advice Needed

Congratulations on the new baby! It's great how your little trooper graduated from the NICU. You have had a very stressful beginning, in addition to the normal work your body has to do just recovering from the birth. I'm sorry the NICU nurses also added to some of your stress.
I hope you are caring for yourself physically with rest and good nourishment. Your efforts for your newborn sound exemplary.

Re: Late Preterm Advice Needed

My LO was in the NICU for 7 weeks, born at 30 weeks gestation - I did not even get to try to nurse her for about 5 weeks...she was fed with an NG tube.

When we first tried to breastfeed, she had trouble latching...then she got tired very, very quickly...after about 5 minutes she was exhausted, and the nurses would tell me that she was burning more calories then she was taking in if we tried to force her to work hard at it.

She came home at 37 weeks, and I still could not get her to finish a feed at the breast, so I pumped after every feed and would top her off with a bottle of EBM. This went on for several weeks, until I started dropping the top-offs a feed at a time. She didn't nurse without topoffs until we were home for about a month.

It was very stressful and exhausting! Keep at it mama, it does get easier!

Re: Late Preterm Advice Needed

Originally Posted by @llli*andrea.wolford

Lots of babies that are born preterm do not nurse well untill after there due date.

Congrats on your baby mama!

With preemies it can take some time for them to get things down. And the due date is a general rule of thumb for when a lot of preemies seem to get there. Our son, even though I tried to latch every single feed, never got the hang of BF until a little after his due date. With LOTS of encouragement from my LC, and lots and lots of patience.

In the meantime I did pump and feed him BM that way, and did kangaroo care all the time. If he wasn't being changed he was most likely on my chest, even in the bath or shower. It really really does help.

And don't worry about those first few hours mama. I couldn't even hold my little man for 3 days and he and I are bonded like you wouldn't believe. It'll come.

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Re: Late Preterm Advice Needed

Originally Posted by @llli*nolies.mama

In the meantime I did pump and feed him BM that way, and did kangaroo care all the time. If he wasn't being changed he was most likely on my chest, even in the bath or shower. It really really does help.

And don't worry about those first few hours mama. I couldn't even hold my little man for 3 days and he and I are bonded like you wouldn't believe. It'll come.

Congratulations to you and baby! It can be tough to recover from unexpected challenges at the beginning, but it really does get easier and better!

My son went blue at the breast the first two times I breastfed him, and then went into respiratory distress and we didn't get to try again for a few days. I was told in the NICU that I was "touching him wrong" as he lay there all covered with wires and tubes -- I left that place with my confidence in shambles and it took a long time for me to feel any kind of balance. In addition to the kangaroo care, I found that I really needed a lot of support for myself to help me recover from the experience of his early hours and then his NICU stay. Finding others who went through similar experiences is fabulous, as is being provided the time you didn't get just after your little one's birth to really just focus entirely on being with baby skin to skin and nursing -- now we even celebrate both DS's birthday, and the day of his release from the NICU, letting the time between them be one of really focusing on our family, on each other individually, and on DS's ever increasing independence.

Hang in there, and there is no such thing as too much skin to skin time with a newborn...